Trimcraft Bloggers Day 2017

The other day, I had a crafter’s dream come true! I was invited by the folks at Trimcraft to experience a day of paper crafts, in order to celebrate the launch of their new blog. It was every bit as fun as it sounds! You might have seen me vlogging the day through my Instagram stories – if not, then read on!

The day started off with a short drive over to their Nottingham HQ (I also live in Notts, so I managed to have a decent lie in – double win!). When I got there, I was greeted with pastries, tea, coffee and juice. There was then a bit of mingling time, where I got chatting with the very nice Sarah-Jayne from Bella Coco. Very soon, we were taken in to the workshop area…

Over the course of the day, we made everything from decoupage photo frames and origami ornaments, to hand-bound notebooks and even took part in a free-style crafting challenge! Alas, I didn’t win the challenge… that honour went to the very talented (and also very cool!) Emma from These Glittery Hands. We were also given an exclusive sneak peek of some upcoming Trimcraft ranges – it was all rather VIP! Check out the video below to see a bit more of what we got up to…

It goes without saying that the day was brilliant! It was SO NICE to be able to just craft, without worrying about blogging the results or photographing all the stages. I also loved getting to meet a bunch of fellow bloggers and creative business owners. In fact – and perhaps unsurprisingly – I was the only man there. At first, I was a bit intimidated by this… walking into a room full of female crafters, I definitely felt like the odd one out! But I soon realised that this is exactly the problem that I want to address through The Crafty Gentleman: there’s such a dominance of women in the craft industries, than men can often feel intimidated or left out. So a huge thank you to Trimcraft for inviting me along, and allowing me to show that crafting is for everyone: male and female, young and old!

The day ended in true crafty style: with a challenge to decorate their office mannequin with something handmade. Of course, I made a paper bow tie and little pocket square! We were then given an epic gift bag of goodies (seriously, we’re talking 4kg of supplies; it’s amazing) and sadly had to say our farewells.

Again, thanks so much to the Trimcraft team for inviting me along. If you fancy learning more about what Trimcraft is all about, be sure to check out their swanky new site. But for now, I’m off to explore that goodie bag again… I swear, there’s something new every time I look! – Mike.

About me

Mike is the owner and founder of The Crafty Gentleman, a website aimed at encouraging men into the world of crafts. He loves nothing more than an afternoon spent crafting, with a cup of tea and some good tunes in the background.